Eduard Remenyi.

Evening Star, Issue 7403, 24 December 1887, Page 2

Eduard Remenyi.

The following, account of Remenyi's life, taken from Grove's • Dictionary of Mask/ will bo read with interest J

Remenyi, Eduard, a famous violinist, was born in 1830 at Hewes (according to another account at Miskole), in Hongary, and received his musical education at the Vienna Conservatoire daring the yean 1842-1845, where his master on the violin wa« Joseph Bohm, the same who instructed Joachim. In 2848 he took an active part in the Insurrection, and became adjutant to the famous General GOrgey,finder whom be took part in the campaign against Austria. After the revolution had been crushed he had tail/ his country, and went to America, where be resumed his career as a virtuoso. In 1853 he went to Liszt in Weimar, who at onee recognised his getritts and became bis artistic guide and friend. In the 'following year he came .to London, .. and was appointed-solo violinist to the Queen. In 1860 he obtained his amnesty and returned to Hungary, .where some time afterwards he received from the Emperor of Austria a similar distinction to that granted):in -England, After his return home he seems to have retired for a. time from pnbKc life, living chiefly on an estate he owned in Hungary. In 1805 he appeared for the first time in Paris, where he created a perfect furore in the salons of the aristocracy. Repeated artistic tours in Germany, Holland, and Belgium further tended to spread his fame. In 1875. he settled temporarily, in Paris, and in the summer time of 1877 came to London, where also he produced a sensational eff-ct in pritate circles. T'he season being far advanced, be appeared in public only once, at Mr Mapleson's benefit concert at the Crystal Palace, where he played . a fantasia on themes from the 'Huguenots.' In the autumn of 1868 he again visited London, and played at the Promenade Concerts. He was only on his way to America, where he has been giving concerts for the last three years, and still resides (1891). As an artist, M. Remenyi combines perfect mastery/ over the technical difficulties of his instrument with a strongly pronounced poetic individuality. His soul is in his playing, and his impulse carries him away with it as he warms to his task, the impression produced on the audience being accordingly in an ascending scale. He never tires, and one never tires of him. The stormier pieces of Chopin, transferred by him from the piano to the violin, are given by Remenyi with overpowering effect. But tenderer accents are not wanting; the nocturnes of Chopin and Field, arranged in the same way, he gives with the suavest dreaminess, interrupted at intervals only by the accents of passion. Another important feature in Remenyi's playing is tho national element. He strongly maintains against Liszt the genuineness of Hungarian music, and has shown himself thoroughly imbued with that spirit by writing several "Hungarian melodies," which have been mistaken for popular tones and adopted an such by other composers. The same half-Eastern spirit is observable in the strong rhythmical accentuation of Remenyi's style, so rarely attained by artists of Teutonic origin. For this ana other reasons the arrangement of Chopin's mazurkas and similar pieces are more eongenial .to him than the classical works, of Beethoven, Schumann, Mendelssohn, which, as a matter of course, are in his repertoire. Altogether, his genius will be most appreciated in a drawing-room, where his marked individuality is felt more immediately than in a large concert-hall. Remenyi's fame is accordingly of a somewhat peculiar kind. It resembles that of our non-exhibiting painters. Most English amateurs have heard his name and know that he ranks amongst the leading artists of the day, but few can vouch for the general impression by their personal experience. Moreover, Remenyi is of too migratory a nature to follow up his success in any given place.. : He is the wanderwjHplsician par and at intervals, wheSjjghe whim takes him, will disappear from p'uHfc Jfiew altogether. :'-. But although somewhafiy^enatureof a ' comet, he is undoubtedlyaringiJLihß,, first magnitude-in -his own compositions are of no mostly confined to his instrument and other pieces written for his own immediate use.